What invoice OCR does
Invoice OCR reads an invoice and pulls out the fields your books need — invoice number, vendor, dates, line items, tax, and total — turning a PDF or scan into structured data. The goal is to eliminate manual data entry: instead of a person keying numbers into accounting software, the invoice is read and the fields are extracted automatically.
Traditional invoice OCR relied on per-vendor templates: you had to teach it where each field sat on the page, and a new layout broke it. Papersnap uses document AI instead, so it reads invoices it has never seen before — different vendors, currencies, and formats — without any template setup.
What Papersnap pulls from an invoice
- •Header fields: invoice number, vendor, invoice date, due date, PO number
- •Line items: description, quantity, unit price, and amount for each row
- •Totals: subtotal, tax, and grand total — reconciled against the line items
- •Export: JSON for APIs and integrations, or CSV for spreadsheets and accounting imports
Why template-free matters
- •Works on new vendors: no setup per supplier — a first-time invoice extracts like any other
- •Handles scans and photos: OCR reads images; born-digital PDFs are read directly for speed
- •Fewer errors: no transcription typos on amounts, tax, or dates
- •Scales: process one invoice or a batch — the same pipeline, no per-layout maintenance